grupă

Forms

grupă f (plural grupe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French groupe, according to DEX, MDA2, DA, Tiktin and Wiktionary.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Graur objected that a French masculine would not have become a Romanian feminine: Russian and Bulgarian, which took the word from the feminine German Gruppe, also have it as a feminine, so he derived the Romanian word from Russian, where it was long a military term, with some senses perhaps taken straight from German; the neuter grup he left to French.^[6] Scriban took the neuter from Italian and the feminine from French.^[6]

The French word was borrowed in 1668 from Italian gruppo, a term of art for several figures forming a whole, which DHLF traces to a Germanic word for a rounded mass.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Predetici in 1793.^[5] MDA2's is Alecsandri's poems, in the collected edition of 1875.^[3] In the oldest quotations of DA the word means a gathering of similar beings or things: in Alecsandri flowers gather în grupe.^[4]

Semantic evolution

DA's quotations show the general sense of a cluster of people or things, and in Maiorescu the classes into which concepts are sorted.^[4] In the 20th century the word was used for organised bodies of people: a trade-union group, a class of students, the smallest military unit.^[8][2] In the sciences it names a subdivision with shared features: the grupă sangvină “blood group” and the groups of the periodic table.^[2][3] The older general sense is now rare and has passed to grup.^[2][9]

Timeline

• 1793 – Predetici, the first record in Tiktin.^[5]
• 1875 – Alecsandri's poems, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1958 – grupă sanguină “blood group” in the DLRM.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small collective of people that is part of a larger organisation: o grupă de studenți “a class of students”.^[2][10]
2. An administrative unit of an enterprise or institution, based on specialization.^[2][3]
3. The smallest military unit for training and combat, a squad.^[2][3]
4. (rare) A group, a grup.^[2]
5. A subdivision in the sciences grouping elements with common features;^[2][3] grupă sangvină: a blood group.^[2][3]
6. (chemistry) A group of the periodic table.^[2][3]

Related words

• grup
• grupa
• French groupe

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 453
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1028
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. grupă
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. grupă
6. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. grupă
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 424
9. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. grupă
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. grupă